La Paz laundry

Washing your clothes by hand: it's hard work; time consuming, messy and works your arm muscles something good. We've been trying to book places to stay that have washing machines either in our apartment or on site (especially because we're using cloth diapers for Eli) but weren't able to do so in La Paz.  As a result, I've been washing some of our clothing by hand in the kitchen sink (don't worry, not any diapers) and most definitely have a renewed appreciation for washing machines.

We've had our laundry done twice here; once by a laundry service and once by the woman who cleans our apartment.  Both charge per kilo.  Based on the price (between $1.70-$2.90 per kilo), the weight of diapers and the time factor, we figured out it's not any cheaper and likely more of a pain to use cloth diapers here, so we've been using disposables.  Laundry here takes time to dry, since dryers are few and far between, and the sun may or may not shine every day.  Our cleaning lady took our laundry on Friday afternoon and returned it Tuesday night (extra days due to rain) but had ironed every single piece of clothing.  That includes Eli's bibs, crib sheets, socks, onesies and pants, as well as all of our shirts, pants and underwear.  Quite the service, right?  Needless to say, we're happy not to be sweating profusely here, as we've been wearing and re-wearing some articles of clothing and just waiting to do more laundry until we're back in Santa Cruz.  There, we can do 1 load of laundry (3-4 kilos) for a $1.  A bargain!!